


Hunted Blue

by chubbychoco



Series: Sex With Steve Rogers [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Anal Play, Bottom Steve Rogers, Mildly Dubious Consent, Other, Plot What Plot/Porn Without Plot, Roughness, Shameless Smut, Tentacle Monsters, Tentacle Sex, Tentacles
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-05-05
Updated: 2016-09-22
Packaged: 2018-06-06 12:37:57
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6754096
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/chubbychoco/pseuds/chubbychoco
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Steve has been tasked with retrieving JUNO, a humanoid of dubious origin and purpose.  It doesn't much want to return home, though, and it's willing to offer Steve quite the experience if he'll be good enough not to force the matter...</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [ashcdm](https://archiveofourown.org/users/ashcdm/gifts).



> Ah, JUNO - my go-to tentacle monster, as seen here: http://talesfrommidgard.tumblr.com/image/143909832824 . All you really need to know about it is that it's blue, it looks more or less like a featureless human, and that it has a mass of tentacle-like extensions that are generally flat against its back, but can be manipulated into various configurations to help ensure JUNO's survival. Like glider wings if it falls from a high place. Or extra limbs if it's being attacked from behind. Or impromptu dicks if I'm looking for a reason to fuck Steve senseless.

They called it JUNO, and it was never supposed to escape.

Mostly humanoid, a soft, translucent turquoise, and clearly capable of picking up on verbal cues that its creators had not planned on it understanding, Steve had been tasked with retrieving it. Though wary at first, they'd told him just enough that Steve started to feel certain in his ability to handle the situation. 'It isn't dangerous,' he was assured. 'We haven't taught it to fight yet; we've been too busy taming out base instincts. Just stuff that comes with any force-generated functional organism. You should be fine.'

  
Steve had taken the mission with confidence, and his first impulse was to handle it kindly. Why not? There was no sense in hurting anyone or anything that didn't threaten him...and when he entered the room where JUNO was hiding, it was quite clear that it had no plan on attacking. Not if it could help it. A huge mass of pencil-thin tendrils rose from its back, and JUNO twisted them into a fan-like shape that was no doubt intended to scare him. It let out a loud, harsh noise like a stuttering trill on a flute, taking a few angry steps forward and hooking its fingers into claws.

Steve leaned back, but did not step back, and held up a placating hand. "Easy, easy! I'm not here to hurt you."

  
JUNO's fingers relaxed, but it stayed crouched for escape, and the fan stayed up.

  
"Do you understand English?" Steve asked, voice calm...which was some feat, because if he was being perfectly honest, JUNO didn't just ride the uncanny valley - it ruled it. Its face was devoid of a nose or mouth, but it had large, almond-shaped white eyes that were rimmed heavily with a deep night-sky blue. Still, it clearly had feelings. Treating it like a freak would be counterproductive and cruel, neither of which he wanted.

  
JUNO tilted its head before nodding slowly, a much lower noise running from wherever the hell it made those sounds.

  
Steve nodded back, leaning forward again, his hand still out. "That's incredible. I was told you were created in a laboratory...no one mentioned you were intelligent." And actually, now that he thought about it, that pissed him off. "Wait, really? You're...you're intelligent." He scoffed, but not at JUNO. "Wow. It takes a whole lot of nerve to make a living, feeling thing, then treat it like an object."

  
JUNO peered at him as if he'd just said something amazing, the fan on its back relaxing by inches. As the tendrils came unraveled, they tucked back against JUNO's body until they were no longer noticeable. Only a group of about twenty, ten on each side, remained out, and JUNO used them to steady itself.

  
"You feeling a little better?" Steve asked. "Now that you know I'm not going to treat you like you don't feel anything?" JUNO nodded, and Steve smiled, letting his hand fall. He took a permissive step forward, letting JUNO see that he was in no rush, nor of a mind to be forceful. "Good. This is good. I didn't come here to hurt you."

  
JUNO's eyes flattened at the bottom slightly, and Steve realized it was smiling back at him.

  
"Alright. So, you're probably wondering why I'm here, if it isn't to hurt you." When JUNO nodded, Steve answered, "Well, the people who created you want you back, so I - "

  
JUNO didn't let him finish. It let out an earsplitting shriek and threw itself into a corner, facing Steve with obvious anger. It didn't recreate the fan, but instead used those odd extensions to create a spiny cage around itself. There was no question about it: this was no curious excursion into the outside world. JUNO refused to return quietly. Steve took a single step back to where he was before, holding up his hand again.

  
"Okay, you don't want to go back."

  
JUNO shook its head fiercely.

  
"Why not?"

  
JUNO's eyes narrowed in a very human way, as if the answer should have been obvious...

  
...and, once Steve stopped to think about it for five seconds, it was. He buried his face in his open palm, giving himself a groan of frustration.

  
"Because they treat you like an object. Of course. I was literally getting angry about this myself five seconds ago. Your opinions, your wishes, your pain, they don't matter, do they?" JUNO shook its head, cage still in place. "You have feelings. They know you do. But they didn't want to share that with me...and anyone who'd try to keep that a secret while referring to you as a 'force-generated functional organism', they don't have your best interests in mind." JUNO shook its head again.

  
This put Steve in an awkward place. SHIELD had tasked him for retrieving JUNO for these people.

  
But Steve had fought against living, feeling, thinking creatures - not just humans - being abused since the 1940's. This wasn't a track record he had any intention of breaking. With his brow knitted in thought, he moved to a rickety bench and sat down, folding his hands and bracing them on his lips. He could hear a soft, slippery noise as JUNO uncoiled itself from its protective stance and moved over to give him a wary look.

  
"Don't worry. I'm not..." Steve sighed, scrubbing his hands through his hair. "...I'm not bringing you back to them."

  
JUNO jerked back, shocked. It made a confused noise, tentacles going slack.

  
Steve understood that body language well enough. "I won't. I'll get in trouble for it, but I don't care. The way I see it, you react like a person, you feel like a person? That makes you a person. I've worked with talking dogs, raccoons, computers. I wouldn't hurt them, and I won't hurt you."

  
JUNO seemed frozen in place, and Steve couldn't say he was surprised. It probably thought this was a trick. No one had ever cared enough not to hurt JUNO; for it to suddenly be face-to-face with someone who was not only refusing to hurt it, but also refusing to take it back to those who would...it must have been overwhelming.

  
JUNO shook as it tried to decide what to do. And then Steve looked up at it, with worried blue eyes, those sharp, strong cheeks, and those handsome pink lips pulled into a tight line, and it knew exactly how to thank him.

  
Steve gave a confused 'huh?' as JUNO dropped to kneel in front of him, craning its neck to nuzzle against his chin. He pulled back to assess the situation, but JUNO grabbed his arms in its hands and wrapped its tendrils around him, encouraging him closer. It trailed its hands, squishy and satin-soft, up his arms and felt the muscles there. Steve didn't follow until it shook so hard that its skin actually showed its semi-gelatinous quality, and the sound that ran from it was almost a purr.

  
'Base instincts', ha. That was one way to put it.

  
"Oh - oh god, JUNO, I didn't - " JUNO trilled again, and four of its tentacles moved down to slide across the fly of Steve's uniform. Steve jolted as one of them slid down the zipper, worked inside, and traced along the lines in his underwear that followed his cock. " - holy _fuck_ , I don't think..."

  
JUNO would have stopped if the word 'no' had left Steve's lips. It didn't though - in fact, the next thing to leave Steve's lips was a nervous, pleasured moan when JUNO devoted all four of those wandering tendrils to working open his pants and stroking what lay beneath. Steve's cock twitched with obvious interest, hips rolling forward in a bid for more. This was so weird, Steve knew. Working with non-humans was one thing; letting them bring him pleasure, letting them touch him...

  
JUNO's tentacles uncoiled away from his back all at once. Some went back against JUNO's body...and others devoted themselves to different tasks. They pulled at buttons and buckles, trying to get Steve naked; they ran along his sides, mapping out his muscles; five of them twisted together and slid up to his lips, giving a suggestive push. Steve opened his mouth to express some doubt, and JUNO took the opportunity to stoke his tongue. Steve was floored - JUNO didn't taste at all like he expected. It was warm and slightly salty, like a human, but also vaguely sweet. There was an element almost like cognac to it...and honestly, it wasn't difficult to want to taste more. Maybe it was the rather large number of tentacles working at his groin now that drove him to distraction, but when JUNO went to pull back, Steve grasped the group with one hand and guided it back to his lips, sucking more of that strange, pleasant taste from JUNO's skin.

  
JUNO had never experienced _that_ before. The noise it made was an unmistakable moan, and it pushed that impromptu limb deep into Steve's mouth, until Steve's tongue pushed hard against it and he made a nervous, confused noise. JUNO didn't go any deeper...but the way his tongue worked, the way Steve seemed torn between his nerves and surrendering to the experience...

  
...yes, this was good.

  
Steve's back bowed when JUNO finally got his clothes off and set about exploring him properly. JUNO had figured out a while ago that by twisting its tentacles into different shapes, it could bring him an endless array of sensations...and oh, _god_ , Steve would never admit out loud that he loved it. It was so easy to buck into it, especially when JUNO shifted from smooth tightness to spiraled, then ribbed, and what felt like a hundred different forms Steve had never even thought of. When JUNO first milked a heavy pearl of precome from him, Steve wasn't at all surprised.

  
JUNO certainly was. It was more than happy to devote its attention to coaxing out more, gently prodding at the slit at his tip with one tendril while using the others to explore the rest of Steve. When poking at his navel made Steve laugh around his mouthful, JUNO laughed back in good spirit. So not there, then. Steve liked the hard stroking over his hips though, and the way JUNO could wrap its tentacles completely around his balls, rocking them gently back and forth.

  
They were _both_ surprised when JUNO pressed two extentions - no thicker than a finger, even together - against Steve's hole. Steve jerked and gave a nervous noise, trying to speak around the group of tendrils that were now fucking his mouth, pushing in and out only just gently enough to stop him from choking. JUNO figured out immediately that this was not a part of Steve it could be rough with, not at first. It pulsed strangely, leaving Steve baffled...until the tentacles that had been prodding curiously only a moment ago coated themselves in a thick, slippery white gel. When it dipped the slicked limbs back down, Steve nearly lost his mind. The gel was warm and it tingled slightly; between that and the feeling of JUNO sliding inside of him, he didn't know what to think. Neither the odd biological lubricant nor penetration was a sensation he was familiar with.

  
But Steve knew one thing for sure. He could get used to having someone inside of him.

  
JUNO could feel the way Steve relaxed against it, slack in the grip of a hundred attentive tentacles. He shivered when JUNO flicked over his nipples, almost bit down when JUNO pushed three more inside of him, one after the other. It was slow and certain about it, warming him up to more.

  
Eventually, JUNO pulled out of his mouth in order to devote more attention to the tight, waiting heat further down. Steve could feel a thin line of saliva run down his chin, but he didn't care - that tingling feeling from JUNO's lube was running all the way through him now, leaving him fuzzy and faint and just a _mess_ of needy lust. He could feel JUNO adding even more tentacles, stretching him out, soothing the faint pain with more lube and long, lazy stroking up and down his aching cock. There was a wet mess pooling beneath him now, between what JUNO coaxed from him and what JUNO produced on its own.

  
Now that his mouth was free, Steve was free to speak again...and there was no more hesitancy there, just a steady stream of curses and barely-coherent sentences. "JUNO...JUNO, _fuck_ yes, I just...oh, god, did you just add _another?_ " Yes, JUNO most certainly had. It wouldn't dream of hurting him, but it was also extremely curious as to his physical capacity. He didn't seem inclined to stop at twenty. Steve shook and bucked like he'd been shocked when JUNO pushed the twisting, textured tangle in and out of him like it had with his mouth, his head falling back and a loud, desperate moan escaping him unfettered. " _Yes, fuck, do it, do it, do it - !_ "

  
It was the first command it had ever received that JUNO was more than happy to obey. It fucked into him with relentless abandon, loving the way Steve tightened up, milking the tentacles for everything they were worth. JUNO added yet another, and another, pausing for a moment when Steve flinched. Right, no more then. It withdrew the unwelcome addition, turning its tentacles soft-side-out and stroking to soothe him. It sought out tender places and stroked them, shifting between warm and cool. The direct attention was almost more than Steve could process; he was moments from coming, and coming hard. When JUNO combined its methods, with the outer tentacles seeking those sweet spots and the inner ones going back to thrusting, he couldn't take it any more.

  
Steve's muscles tightened and his voice went hoarse as his pleasure hit its peak. JUNO didn't stop fucking him through it, squeezing his cock gently, catching his semen and sliding tentacles through the unfamiliar substance. It wasn't until Steve's moans started to take on more of a whimper-like tone that JUNO withdrew, though it continued massaging his thighs and sides with hands and tendrils. It looked down at Steve and made a pleased, low noise. Steve was stretched and messy, the gel shiny on his skin and in thick pools under him. JUNO ran a single tentacle along his used hole, making a worried cooing noise.

  
Steve wasn't exactly sure what JUNO was asking, but he recognized the worried tone. "I'm good," he said, practically a gasp. "I'm sore, but...oh, _oh_ \- " JUNO had pushed that tentacle back inside of him, but this time, it produced a different sort of gel. It was thicker, warmer, and it soothed away the tingling and the ache. Steve went completely slack in JUNO's arms, cheeks burning red. " - you really like touching me, don't you?"

  
JUNO nodded. It didn't feel pleasure the way humans did, but it _did_ feel pleasure...and it very much enjoyed watching Steve feel it. And not just by means of thanking him, either; Steve was extremely attractive, and JUNO's standard for attractiveness was based solely on human ones. It knew a good thing when it saw it; Steve fit the bill.

  
Steve sighed deeply as JUNO pulled away, looking around for something with which to clean him up. When Steve shot it a questioning look, it pantomimed scrubbing his body. "You - you don't have to," he said, feeling a bit dizzy as he put the words in order. "You've been serving others your whole life. Do something for yourself." Steve couldn't help but grin when JUNO made a thick, high noise that he knew instinctively to be a laugh. "You just did, didn't you?"

  
JUNO shrugged, eyes squeezed up into a smile again. It had been for both of them.

  
But hell, if Steve wanted it to enjoy itself more often, it would be more than happy to follow him home.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's no way in hell Steve is going to send JUNO back to the lab, not now that he knows there's an intelligent soul trapped in that wordless body. But that does mean a lot of new things for JUNO...a new name, a new pronoun, a new place to live...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, a lot of people wanted to see more of JUNO, and I got specific requests for domesticity and JUNO actually getting a name. So...here we go, I guess! XD

"What do you mean, you couldn't find it?!"  
  


Steve held the communicator away from himself to protect his ears from the scientist's screech. He scowled into it, shaking his head. "JUNO is gone. I couldn't find th - it; I'm guessing JUNO is about as far away as far away can be."  
  


"I can't believe this; SHIELD said you were the best!"  
  


"I think the others might have something to say about that."

  
"Do you know how many millions of dollars - "

  
Steve cleared his throat pointedly. "I'm aware. But JUNO is gone. I don't know what more you want from me, short of the ability to magically echolocate biological experiments."

  
The scientist made a noise somewhere between angry bull and wounded elk. "This substandard performance is disgusting. I'll be speaking to Directory Fury about this, and we are _not_  paying you."

  
"Really? I'd never have guessed on my own," Steve said caustically. Before the next outraged screech, he finished up. "Over and out." The light on the communicator screen died with a small snap, and Steve tucked it away in one of his pockets. He sighed, scrubbed his hands through his hair...

  
...and looked up at the creature before him, with its arms folded and its shoulders shaking. As soon as JUNO knew the connection was broken, it burst into delighted laughter. Steve was still adjusting to its flute-like voice, and its inability to communicate any other way.

  
And thinking of JUNO as an 'it'. That just didn't feel right.

  
"Hey, JUNO?" he asked.

  
JUNO peered up at him curiously.

  
"Since you're going to be out and about from now on. Do you want to - well, change what people call you, I guess? You know, with a gender? And a real name? Or would you rather things stay the way they are now?"

  
JUNO launched at him, wrapping arms and tendrils around him in a hug. After a delighted trill, JUNO pulled back and stroked a hand over his face, eyes shining. Steve laughed softly, lifting his hand to cup JUNO's.

  
"You like that? Okay, so, female?" JUNO gave an emphatic shake of the head. "Male?" JUNO gave another shake, which had Steve slightly surprised. "But you don't want to stay 'it', so...'they'? Would you like that?" JUNO nodded delightedly, and Steve smiled back. "Alright, we can do that. And once we get you back to the tower, we can figure out a nice name for you, too."

  
JUNO trilled again, bouncing on the heels of their feet. Steve's smile widened.

  
"I'm glad I could help you." JUNO's tendrils began unfurling down his sides, towards the hem of his pants, and Steve quickly pulled back with a yelp. "Whoa, whoa, not yet. I can't go again that soon."

  
JUNO tilted their head at him, eyes flattening out at the bottom into a smile. They took a step back, holding out their hands to indicate acquiescence.

  
"Thank you. Alright, now - we've, um, we've got to get you into the tower." Steve frowned, ducking his head and resting his lips against one curled hand. "That...will be tougher than everything else. Between Tony's security, and the fact that nothing gets past Clint and Natasha, we'll - no, you know what, we'll make it work. I'm not ever letting that lab take you back."

  
First, though, they had to get out of the building. And the hardest part of _that_ was stopping JUNO from hugging him again.

 

 

* * *

  
  


  
Sneaking JUNO into the tower had been easier than Steve had thought it would be. Tony's security was, of course, tighter than a belt after third helpings...but Steve had lived in that tower for more than a year now. He knew how to not be seen if he didn't want to be seen. Not that he could think of too many instances where he'd needed to hide from Tony.

  
Their closest call had come when Clint had come nosing around at the source of noise, and stayed for a moment to chat with Steve. JUNO had squeezed themselves into a nearby vent, and had emerged with a very faint blue glow. When they took Steve's hand, he realized why - the electricity jumped from JUNO's body to his, and he yelped as the static shot through his hand. "Ouch! Jeez, JUNO." JUNO made a worried noise, looking at his hand. "No, it's - it's okay, you just startled me. Did you know you glow when you build up static charge?" They shook their head. "Yeah, you do. Really faint, sort of blue. It's a very pretty color."

  
Compliments were still new enough that JUNO liked even the usual ones. They pressed against Steve, cheek resting on his shoulder, cooing affectionately. Steve couldn't resist reaching up to run his hand across the hair-like part of JUNO's head, and their eyes fluttered shut. The cooing turned into a soft, sustained note, one they held until they were in Steve's room.

  
Once there, JUNO's fascination took over, and they began exploring things with a curious shine in their eyes. They kept one eye on Steve, making sure things were okay to examine, but Steve had very little he felt compelled to keep secret.

  
"You can look around a little if you want. Can you write?" Steve asked. When JUNO nodded, he smiled and retrieved one of his pads of paper and a pen. "Perfect! Okay, so I have a couple questions that I can't get the answers to, since I don't understand you. Here you go."

  
JUNO took the paper and pen and did a little scribble in the corner to make sure the pen was working. Once they confirmed it was, they nodded delightedly and turned a pleased look on Steve to indicate they were ready.

  
"They never really explained at the lab - guess they were trying to keep me in the dark - what exactly does JUNO stand for?" JUNO's eyes narrowed, though not at Steve, and they let out a displeased snort as they wrote. Steve watched carefully as they spelled it out in font-perfect handwriting. "Whoa. 'Jarovizated Ultraviolet Nacreous Organism'? What does that even mean?"

  
JUNO shook their head faintly and continued writing. 'A plant-based organism that needs ultraviolet light to survive and has a pearly gloss on its body. It's like a description for a child's toy - Red Four-Wheeled Wagon. Scratched Orange Sandcastle Mold.'  
Steve shook his head with far more energy. It was clear in JUNO's grasp of language that there was a intelligent mind, unable to communicate in any way humans knew, trapped in there. How awful it must have been, with no one even trying to listen to them...no, worse. If JUNO knew they could write, then the scientists had taught them. Surely they had pleaded for freedom, or at least respite. The lab simply hadn't cared, like with so many other facets of JUNO's happiness.

  
"That's horrible. Look at this, look how smart you are, and they just...ugh. Do you want to be called that?" He wasn't even remotely surprised when JUNO gave a harsh, snarled note and shook their head. "Yeah, I didn't think so. But...what do you want to be called, then? Do you have a preference?"

  
The dream of a name had been such a distant one that JUNO had to stop and think about it for a moment. Steve could see a strange shine appear over their eyes, and he wasn't sure what it meant until JUNO's knees went weak and they fell back to sit on his bed, dropping the pen and paper and pressing the heels of their palms into their eyes.

  
"Whoa, hey, are you alright!?" Steve asked worriedly, kneeling to look at them. "JUNO? JUNO, please, let me know you're alright."

  
It was a long moment before JUNO picked up the paper again and explained. 'You're the first person who's cared. I told the scientists - ' So, he'd been right. Those bastards. ' - that I was unhappy, and in pain, but they regarded me as a weapon that could whine. You're the first person to ever offer me freedom, and call me smart, and how do I thank you? Like an animal in heat.'

  
Steve looked over the words and shook his head. "No, no," he said, soft and soothing. "I mean, yeah, it took me by surprise, but...uh, I was pretty pent up. And I could have told you 'no'. Besides, at the time, did you really think you'd ever see me again after I let you go?" JUNO peered at him, eyes still shiny, and indicated a 'no'. "So what would be the point of offering some sort of long-term favor? Especially since...I mean, I told you it was high time you did something for yourself. You heard me say that, remember?"

  
JUNO processed his words carefully, thinking about them and tapping the pen tip gently on the paper before asking, 'So you're not upset?'

  
"Not with you. Or myself. Just the jackasses that treated you the way they did. Now, promise me something - promise me you'll never compare yourself to an animal again." When JUNO gave him a curious look, he said, "One, because implying that they're inferior is an insult to them. I've told you, I've worked with people who are, by governmental definition, actual animals. They're better people than some of the humans I've met. And reason number two, that widely accepted inferiority is what lets people like your creators get away with treating you the way they did."

  
JUNO snuggled close to him as he spoke, one side's tendrils - more like vines, Steve realized, if JUNO was plant-based - unfurling and wrapping gently around him. 'You're so kind.' After a moment's pause, they added, 'I think I'd like to be called Luna.'

  
"It's a nice name. You didn't want to addressed be male or female, though, right? Luna is a traditionally feminine name in this part of the world; are you comfortable with that?"

  
The hug strengthened. 'Yes. Thank you for asking.'

  
It was strange. It felt as though there should have been more ceremony surrounding the change of a name, but there it was. A quiet exchange over a piece of paper between two people in a room in New York. JUN - no, Steve corrected himself, Luna - Luna gave a quiet, deep noise and let their eyes droop closed. 'I'm very tired. Is that normal, or have I injured myself?'

  
"Running away, having sex, sneaking into a tower, all while experiencing an extremely powerful range of emotions? I'm surprised you're still awake, to be honest," Steve answered, scooting off of the bed. Luna's tendrils were slackened now, relaxing away from their body, and they gave a strange sound - not flute-like, as the other noises they made were, but more like a squeak combined with a sigh - which Steve realized must have been a yawn. "Here, go ahead and take my bed. I don't sleep much anyway."

  
Luna managed to write one last thing before falling asleep. 'You could sleep in it with me.'

  
Steve couldn't help but grin. Clearly, Luna wasn't too torn up over seducing him, because they were obviously open to a second round. Then again, he'd told them not to be torn up over it...and besides, he'd be lying if he said he wasn't anticipating it sometime in the future. They had established chemistry, and there was a mutual respect between them. Exclusively human relationships had started on less.

  
  


* * *

  
  


" _What the shit!_ "

  
Steve rushed into the room, fists at the ready, but what he saw wasn't what he was expecting. Luna was flared in their intimidation pose, giving a low growling note, and Tony was leaning against the opposite wall staring at them in horror. He looked frantically at Steve, then pointed at Luna as though he were begging for him to confirm that yes, there was a blue kind-of-human across from him.

  
Steve looked at Tony incredulously. "Tony, that's Luna! Calm down."

  
Luna immediately relaxed upon hearing Steve confirm that this situation was loaded with far too much energy. Tony, however, did not. "What do you mean, 'that's Luna'?! The way you talked about Luna, I thought she was a woman you were seeing!"

  
"Well...I mean, I'm not exactly not seeing Luna..."

  
"She lives in the tower! Since when?!" Tony demanded.

  
"It's 'they', not 'she'. Tony, I stopped trying to hide this weeks ago," Steve said, utterly baffled by his fear. "I'd mentioned them staying in my room."

  
"I thought that was a joke," Tony said, looking at Luna warily. "About you bringing someone back. What the ever-loving fuck; why have I never seen this before today?"

  
Luna went over to the bedside table and retrieved their notepad. 'I rarely leave his room. I'm frightened to go out.'

  
That had Tony relaxing somewhat, his curiosity overriding his fear. "Frightened? Why - "

  
There were footsteps pounding down the hall, and suddenly the doorway was filled with their friends. "Steve, Tony! We heard shouting, what is - oh. Holy shit."

  
Luna looked worriedly at the others, moving over to half-hide behind Steve. He could feel them shaking, and he knew exactly what was going through their mind: Are they going to send me back? Steve had to resist the urge to turn and soothe Luna's frazzled nerves.

  
"Uh - okay, from the top," Steve said slowly. "Guys, this is Luna. Formerly known as JUNO."

  
Bruce approached, eyes bright with interest. "The experiment you were supposed to bring back?"

  
"Yes."

  
"This...does not look like an experiment." Bruce examined Luna carefully, but backed up when they narrowed their eyes and trilled at him. "This looks suspiciously cognitive." He could see Luna relax a bit at that, but opted not to approach all the same.

  
"That's because they are." Steve held out his hands and encouraged Luna towards the bed to sit and everyone else to the wall so they could all hear him and get a good look at their new live-in. He was shocked, to say the least, that none of the others had caught a glimpse of them, but he wasn't about to begrudge them an explanation. "Here we go. Stop me if I need to explain anything."

  
Steve actually did a perfectly good job of explaining on his own - conveniently skipping the part where Luna had fucked him dizzy, he told them about how he'd tracked Luna down, how they'd made their distress at the idea of returning to the lab quite clear, how he'd sneaked them in at first for fear of the team not understanding and calling the lab. He went on to explain how he'd stopped trying to keep Luna a secret after the first couple weeks, but it never occurred to him that the others simply hadn't seen them. There was still some confusion...

  
...until they found out why Luna didn't want to return to the laboratory. Then there was anger.

  
"Those sons of bitches," Clint snarled, looking out the window as if they were listening. "Those assholes. I mean seriously, you can't create a thinking, feeling _anything_ and then expect to just...suppress free will. That's disgusting."

  
"My god," Natasha said, frowning down at the floor. Steve knew why - being kept in a facility and trained as a weapon with no reprieve from the pain must have hit far too close to home.

  
Tony had calmed down significantly, and he shook his head with a frown. "No wonder you hid. I mean, shit, who wouldn't?"

  
"So we're all in agreement, then?" Bruce asked. When the group looked over at him, he gave an 'isn't it obvious?' shrug. "JUNO - excuse me, I mean Luna. Luna stays here. There's no way in hell we're sending them back there."

  
There was slackened disbelief on Luna's face as the room offered unanimous agreement. To return them was a violation of their rights as a living, breathing person - or whatever Luna wanted to be called - and therefore, until such a time that they could safely go public, the Avengers would hide and house them. Steve looked at Luna with a smile, and Luna buried their face in their hands again, repeatedly making a soft chirping noise.

  
"Uh...Steve, what is that?" Clint asked, looking worried.

  
"I think Luna's just a bit overwhelmed right now. Am I right?" he asked. Luna nodded, and Steve stroked their back soothingly. "They're very emotional, and I doubt kindness has featured too heavily in their life until now." Luna nodded again, then reached for their paper and wrote in a shaky hand, 'thank you'.

  
"To be honest, this isn't even the weirdest thing we've ever done," Tony said, leaning back against the wall and folding his arms. "Damn close, maybe. But not the weirdest."

  
"Not even close," Clint retorted. "Also, that pen and paper's gonna get really annoying for you. You want me to teach you ASL?"

  
  
Luna looked up with a blank lack of recognition. ASL?

  
"American Sign Language. The whole team knows it, but I've known it the longest. I can teach you, if you want."

  
The skin on Luna's entire body trembled as they fought off another wave of crushing emotion. Their experience with Steve had been more than they'd ever known, but this was on a whole new level. They'd had no idea that even happiness could leave them exhausted and shaking, but here it was - so relieved, so filled with joy that they couldn't even stand. Luna managed a nod, resting their hands on their knees.

  
"Alright. Why don't you come on out to the living room? I've got some books out there that will help a lot."

  
Luna looked at Steve with a smile in their eyes.

  
Suddenly they had friends, real friends, and the house felt like home.


End file.
